In 2004 I installed my first Kaseya Agent and launched my first Kaseya remote desktop management session. Never before had I been able to remotely access a NAT’d device without a mapped IP. It connected in 60-180 seconds, most of the time, and I was awestruck!

Fast forward 10 years and the game has changed -and so must we. On May 30th, 2014 we will release our new Kaseya Remote Control solution as part of VSA 7.0.

The focus for this project has been on 3 key objectives:

Connect in 6 seconds

Connect 99% of the time

Perform well over latent connections

To meet these objectives, fundamental changes were required. VSA 7.0 brings new code, new methods, and new technology to the product.

Agent to Server Persistence

The VSA Server and Agent have a small yet powerful addition in 7.0. These additions establish a lightweight, always-on connection between server and agent. Because of this persistent connection, commands can be sent, received and responded to in milliseconds. In the case of Remote Control, the admin can initiate a remote access request and receive a response from the agent in near real-time. This addition increases the time-to-connect speed substantially!

Non-Sequential Communication Channels

Current Kaseya technology communicates in a very sequential manner, meaning there is a “wait in line” restriction that may slow down on-demand requests. With the new communication layer, remote control requests no longer get queued behind other activities on the agent. In addition, we now perform all activities required to set up a remote control session in parallel. For example, if end user permission is required to start a session, connectivity will be established behind the scenes in the meantime, so it’s ready to go when the user is.

Video Codec and Hardware Acceleration

Unlike many competitors’ solutions, Kaseya Remote Control is built using a video codec. Large video streaming firms like Netflix and Hulu use similar codecs to send hi-def movies to your computer. With the advent of these services, innovation in video codec technology continues to grow. Most has been focused on increasing video quality (i.e. hi-def) while reducing the bandwidth required. As the demand for 4K video increases, this technology will only become more efficient. Leveraging these efficiencies will only increase our performance.

Leveraging hardware acceleration is another area of opportunity. By using well known video codec technology it is possible to leverage the GPU, to perform hardware acceleration, on both the admin and endpoint. This drives increased performance and responsiveness. Additionally, with more people watching video on their mobile devices, it is possible to leverage mobile GPU’s, therefore ensuring the user experience is never compromised, no matter the device.

And We Are Just Getting Started

The best thing about this remote desktop management project is that we are just getting started. We believe it will be faster, more reliable and perform well under any circumstances. If you want a sneak peek at our new Kaseya Remote Control and you are an existing Kaseya customer, come join us in Las Vegas for Kaseya Connect, our annual user conference. We hope to see you there.

Stay tuned for Part 2 as we take a deeper look at the technology behind Kaseya Remote Control.